IGI airport's T2 puts up elaborate arrangement for seamless operation from Mar 25

With IndiGo and SpiceJet shifting partial operations to T2 of the IGI airport from March 25, the airport operator has put in place measures for seamless operations and help passengers reach the terminal without hassles.

About 74 check-in counters, 18 self-check-in kiosks, 12 X-ray machines and six baggage reclaim belts have been put up at the terminal, spread over 36,000 square metres. The terminal will have 16 boarding gates, including aero-bridges.

IndiGo will be shifting over 100 flights to T2 while SpiceJet will be shifting 22 flights. The walking time between T2 and T3 will be five minutes.

Free shuttle services at 10 minutes interval will also be made available between T1 and T2, said GMR-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) - the airport operator.

Big banners, tent stands would be put up at all the three terminals informing passengers about the shifting of flights along with pamphlets, pocket cards and stickers.

After much dilly-dallying and court battles, the largest airline IndiGo had announced on March 15 to relocate a chunk of its operations to the revamped T2 from March 25. A day earlier, budget carrier SpiceJet too had announced to move 22 of its flights to seven destinations from T2. GoAir had moved its entire operations to T2 last October.

The IndiGo flights being shifted to T2 will be flying to destinations such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Raipur, Srinagar, Bagdogra, Udaipur,Vadodara and Vishakhapatnam from T2 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. These flights will be numbered from 6E 2000 to 6E 2999.

SpiceJet will be operating to seven destinations from T2. They are Ahmedabad, Patna, Pune, Goa, Kochi, Surat and Gorakhpur.

As per the recent order of the Supreme Court, both IndiGo and SpiceJet had submitted lists of sectors to GMR-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) for shifting to T2 and DIAL had given its consent to the proposal.

The shifting, however, is a temporary move to ease the pressure of the fast-growing traffic at T1. The move will enable the expansion works at T1 effectively.

CEO of DIAL Prabhakara Rao, in a statement, said the partial shifting will enable them to start the expansion works at Terminal 1 that will be carried out over the next 3-4 years.

T1 is set to be expanded from the current capacity of 20 million to 40 million passengers per annum.

With the partial shift of operations of SpiceJet and IndiGo to T2, passenger area for flyers will increase from 25,917 sqm at T1 to combined 62,010 sqm. T2 adds additional 36,093 sqm passenger area.

IndiGo, in a release, said it is reaching out to all affected passengers and their respective travel agents via SMS, calls, and e-mails provided in reservation.

The airline also said in the event of an IndiGo passenger missing the flight due to the change in terminal, it will re-book the flight at no extra charge.

A social media campaign has also been launched by the DIAL to generate awareness among passengers about shifting of the flights. Passengers can get all the required information regarding T2 by using #ShiftingToT2.

An extensive signage exercise has also been carried out for helping passengers with directions and locations of their respective terminals. For passengers inadvertently reaching the wrong terminals, free shuttles with specially trained drivers have been introduced to and from T1 and T2.

Extra manpower has also been deployed for guiding any wrongly landed passengers, DIAL said.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)